Contributors

Monday, 9 January 2017

Lieutenant-Colonel Ebenezer Cox

I'm going to kick off the new year with some more personalities. Colonel Ebenezer Cox was one of the commanders of the vanguard of the American column that was ambushed at the battle of Oriskany on 6 August 1777 while on its way to relieve Fort Stanwix. He was born in June 1741 and was killed at the battle. His official position at the time of the battles appears to have been second-in-command of a unit of Tryon Country militia (Brigadier Nicholas Herkimer being the commanding officer of this unit). Apparently Tryon County's militia was formed into five regiments, each with distinct recruiting districts - Cox led the First Regiment, with men drawn from the Canajoharie area. In my post on Herkimer, I noted that on the morning of 6 August Herkimer had misgivings about pushing on to Fort Stanwix before reinforcements had arrived, but was cajoled into continuing his advance by his other officers. Cox is named in histories of the battle as being one of those officers who accused Herkimer of being a coward and a Tory. Cox must have been with Herkimer at the front of the column when the Crown forces attacked - he and several other officers were killed in one of the first vollies, whilst Herkimer was hit in the leg shortly thereafter. The First Regiment appears to have lost five of its captains and one lieutenant in the battle and so must have been pretty cut up in the battle.

So unfortunately, the real Ebenezer Cox (who was the father of four young children at the time) had didn't live beyond the battle's opening stages. However, he is listed as the vanguard's commanding officer in the "British Grenadier!" Oriskany scenario and so I wanted to have a figure to represent him (and act as another militia commander more generally). This is another Galloping Major sculpt, from the "Anglo-American Militia Command" pack in their F&IW range. The look and pose of this figure is perfect, I think - running for cover just after the ambush has been sprung. Also, unlike a lot of command figures who just stand around, this chap is actually shouting orders. I suppose militia commanders should be mounted, but to be honest I think they look better on foot - I expect they jumped off their horses pretty quickly at Oriskany.

5 comments:

Brilliant idea using FiW personalities for AWI. Good choice on the sculpt. He looks 'well fed' which, for a colonial, means wealthy. A proper indicator of command potential. Shameful to say now, but true back then.